RHEL7: How to get started with package groups.

Presentation

The package groups are a well-known feature of the yum command to group multiple packages under a single name.

Even though yum will be replaced with dnf in future releases of RHEL, the syntax and features will stay the same (at least this is the case in Fedora 22 where you can replace yum with dnf without any problem).

Note: While some yum subcommands groupinfo, grouplist and groupinstall were written with only one word in RHEL 6, RHEL 7 now accepts one or two words: yum groupinfo/yum group info, yum grouplist/yum group list, yum groupinstall/yum group install, etc.

Package Group Management

To get the list of all the environment and top-level package groups, type:

Note1: By specifying the ids option, you get the system name of each package group between parenthesis. This name, called the Group ID, is easier to use because generally shorter and without any spaces. It is also the name used by Kickstart during the installation.
Note2: To get the list of all the package groups, you need to add the hidden argument: # yum group list ids hidden
Note3: With the Group ID, you don’t need to use the group subcommand anymore, at least for the install and remove options:

Note1: The core package group contains the smallest possible installation, also called Minimal Install.
Note2: The base package group, with the help of the core package group, allows to build a basic installation, also called Infrastructure Server.

To get the list of the packages belonging to a package group (here “Web Server“), type: